I renewed my Microsoft Certified Trainer “license” (if you so will) for another year today. I really do enjoy spending some time in the classroom now and then. I recognize that I might not always be the best pedagogue, though you should know I try, but I do hope that that mix of theoretic learning material with that crucial ingredient of real world experience gives “this is how this thing works” that extra nuance of “this is how this thing is actually used”. And that’s super important and often left outside of the course material since it’s hard to convey, but in many cases I believe I can bring that to the table.
To those that are unaware, the certified trainer is not really a certification that you pass, although you do need to have passed a certification as one of the requirements, it’s more of a affirmation of your ability and commitment to pass on your insight into your-technology-of-choice to others.
Or as the MCT site puts it:
Become part of an elite, international community that spans more than 150 countries and regions and includes classroom and e-learning instructors, learning consultants, authors, conference presenters, and user group leaders. Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs) are the premier technical and instructional experts on Microsoft technologies, and are the only individuals authorized to deliver training for Microsoft Certification.
Now, why is 400 (or really 4000 Swedish crowns) a magic limit to (my) credit card companies? Well, that’s roughly what the MCT renewal cost me, and it bounced. When I called the cc company to see why, and verify that it had, I got told that they had an outage of the system that day, and that only amounts below the 4k Swedish crown limit were automatically approved when the system was unavailable. That sounds like a security hole if any to me. I really do hope there are more safeguards in place around that. Or is there someone there in need of an MCT for some security best practices classes?
Blog Post by: Johan Hedberg